A healthy 'full English'...

fuddle

20-30g of fat per day yes, but not 20-30g of saturated fat.

Fats come from nuts and seeds too. There are healthier routes to getting your daily fat intake than the saturated fat route.

Stoke

fuddle wrote: »

Pollycat you use the clapping hands smiley as if you've been vindicated and I'm a tad confused at that.

There's nothing wrong with eating meat products on occasion if you want, just like there's nothing wrong with eating a different recipe with 'health' in mind.

For some of us it isn't about moderation. It's about avoiding. If I had your full fat cream cheese today, your quality saturated fat sausages tomorrow and continued with that mentality having everything in moderation but still consuming different saturated fat items every day, or even regularly, then my heart would be in more difficulty than it is now.

Pollycat I am in heart failure at age 38. I have inflammation of the heart and medicated for it to pump properly. The damage might be long lasting or I might be lucky and recover. What I have can kill me. All caused through contracting pneumonia 18 months ago.

I'm telling you this because sometimes people make choices out of panic and fear. Can I eat a 90% pork sausage tomorrow? Yeah, course I can and I'm sure I will be fine but I don't want to any more. I want to do the best I can for my heart and my health. That's why I applaud Alan for his first post. He's a heart patient who looks to be looking at ways to help himself recover and avoid further problems. Alan shared. You disagree with him, with me, and that's ok but sometimes moderation isn't the key, it's the slippery slope to further problems.

I think I've probably joined in without reading the context of this thread. Obviously if you have heart issues and need to restrict the amount of saturated fats in your diet, then there will be certain steps you should take.

I'm just talking about the general obesity crisis in this country, which essentially revolves around peoples willingness to blame unhealthy fast foods (despite actively encouraging their excess consumption) and other easy excuses. Moderation is actually not an easy answer, and that is why the levels of obesity are rising.

Pollycat

fuddle wrote: »

Pollycat you use the clapping hands smiley as if you've been vindicated and I'm a tad confused at that.

I regret that you're confused.
I used the clapping hands smiley because - imho - somebody actually 'got' the 'in moderation' point I had been making.

fuddle wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with eating meat products on occasion if you want, just like there's nothing wrong with eating a different recipe with 'health' in mind.

For some of us it isn't about moderation. It's about avoiding. If I had your full fat cream cheese today, your quality saturated fat sausages tomorrow and continued with that mentality having everything in moderation but still consuming different saturated fat items every day, or even regularly, then my heart would be in more difficulty than it is now.

But I don't consume 'different saturated fat items every day, or even regularly.

fuddle wrote: »

Pollycat I am in heart failure at age 38. I have inflammation of the heart and medicated for it to pump properly. The damage might be long lasting or I might be lucky and recover. What I have can kill me. All caused through contracting pneumonia 18 months ago.
I'm telling you this because sometimes people make choices out of panic and fear. Can I eat a 90% pork sausage tomorrow? Yeah, course I can and I'm sure I will be fine but I don't want to any more. I want to do the best I can for my heart and my health. That's why I applaud Alan for his first post. He's a heart patient who looks to be looking at ways to help himself recover and avoid further problems. Alan shared. You disagree with him, with me, and that's ok but sometimes moderation isn't the key, it's the slippery slope to further problems.

I'm sorry to hear about your heart condition.
I'm very healthy for my age (approaching state pension age) - not my opinion but my GP after my health test. He was surprised how fit I was, what /I ate, how I cooked, how much exercise I did.

I weigh a stone more than I did when I got married, years before you were born - but am still within the healthy weight for my height range.
I don't smoke and never have.
I rarely have takeaways.
I drink in moderation, around 21 units per week. More than the recommended 14 units but still not bad - and my doctor agrees.
I've actually been keeping a rolling weekly record of my alcohol units for the past year.
Nothing my doctor said, my own idea.
So, you see, I take my health quite seriously so when I say a sausage or 2 on a rare occasion won't do me any harm, I really do mean it.

So I do assure you that my moderation is not 'the slippery slope to further problems'.

So - to the subject that brought me back to the thread:
Do you agree with this statement?

Charlton_King wrote: »

The claim that sausages are "quality meat" or "proper" is akin to pouring salt over your food but of course it's "all right because it's sea salt".

[Deleted User]

I don't and never have smoked, I don't do alcohol in any form or soft drinks for that matter I have water if we're out (yes, everywhere) and tea, coffee and low calorie hot choc at home, I don't do takeaways other than the very infrequent 'fish and chips' when I have a mushy pea fritter not fish or sausage or pie. I cook from scratch, we grow most of our own fruit and veg and I don't salt anything, we have salt and black pepper on the table if it's wanted but I can't remember the last time I filled the salt cellar so we don't use a lot, either table or sea salt. We eat very well, we don't have a great deal of meat but I buy best quality I can find and afford when we do and we do eat cheese and eggs but again in moderation and the cheese is reduced fat. We use reduced fat spread if we have toast/sandwiches but I try not to have too many carbs and don't eat much bread either my carbs come mostly in the form of new potatoes if appropriate to the meal.

Moderation I all things and sensible choices would seem to be a healthy way of living. Good sausages from the butcher would always be my choice if we were having sausages and salt of any kind is used with restraint and caution.

In response to the original question of Healthy full English I cook everything in the oven, the bacon is as lean as I can find with fat removed and is rolled and threaded on skewers, we use chipolata sausages and both these are cooked on a grid for excess fat to fall and be discarded, tomatoes are roasted, baked beans are in a basin covered with foil, eggs are the exception and are poached on the hob, mushrooms are again in a foil covered basin in the oven and toast is made under the grill for crispness and we use a low fat spread on it. High days and Fridays are when we have a cooked breakfast (I don't do breakfast at all ) and we're more likely to have it for supper than breakfast when we do.

fuddle

We all come at it from different angles according to our needs. I used to do moderation, now, out of fear and wanting to take some sort of control, I avoid and make choices that are suitable for the improvement of my health. Maybe one day, I'll lessen the reigns on myself and allow the odd bit of unhealthiness.. and yes, unhealthy means different things to different people. I do accept that.

I don't agree with that statement at all. The salt content in Quorn sausages, for example, is far too high for my liking.

I do see where many of you are coming from. I have spent the last couple of years following Mark's Daily Apple and subscribing to the Primal way of eating. I still believe that good quality of meat, of everything, is the best way to go it's just that I have had to educate myself very quickly about heart health. My ethos hasn't changed but my food choices have.

For what it's worth I looked at the 'healthier' ready made sausage and decided against it. I didn't appreciate 'messed on with' food before this episode so I'm not going that route now but tonight I am going to try the turkey 'saugage' recipe a few pages back this evening - no added salt and filled with flavoursome herbs, getting my Omega 6 but without excess saturated fat. It's worth a go!

[Deleted User]

my neighbour and friend two houses ago was a farmer who reared his own pig for meat. He never scrimped on any food and had been a wrestler when that is what young men did. He was a gruff well built overweight man, not paunchy,with a heart of gold and lived to 88, he died chasing a poacher down the lane. He ate fat bacon, his own eggs and sausage every day, I doubted he had many vegetables in his life and his meals were traditional, meat and two veg every day. This man never ate low fat, low sugar, low calorie anything and was as healthy as they came, he never smoked and didn`t believe in doctors. We think too much and we process too much and the worst foods are most veg oils, sugar and anything smoked

edit to say that low sodium is not the answer, it was a major contributor to my husbands heart failure, it disrupted certain pathways in the body. We give horses and other animal salt licks, we sometimes crave salty food, why? we should be listening to our bodies
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/6-dangers-of-sodium-restriction#section3

[Deleted User]

just saying, turkey is the best meat for me and I generally only have turkey sausages but I will cook them in a frying pan, just lightly smeared, with lard